SoftBank leading $210M investment in Indian transportation aggregator
28 October 2014
SoftBank Internet and Media, Inc. (SIMI) and ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (better known as “Ola Cabs” or “Ola”) announced a definitive agreement under which SIMI will lead an investment of $210 million in Ola along with existing investors. Ola, founded in 2011, has grown to become the leading transportation aggregator in India. Ola leverages its technology platform to provide a marketplace connecting consumers and drivers via mobile apps, the web and call centers.
Ola’s app now hosts more than 33,000 vehicles across 19 major cities in India. Through this strategic investment and partnership with Ola, SIMI aims to further expand the SoftBank Group’s presence in India and drive synergies with its network of Internet companies around the world.
Since SoftBank’s foundation, our mission has been to contribute to people’s lives through the Information Revolution. We believe India is at a turning point in its development and have confidence that India will grow strongly over the next decade. As part of this belief, we intend to deploy significant capital in India over the next few years to support development of the market.
—Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Corp.
Ola was founded in January 2011 by IIT Bombay alumni Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati and is India’s leading mobile application for cab booking, integrating city transportation for customers and drivers onto a technology platform.
Customers can access Ola through their mobile application for Android, iOS and Windows. Ola is also the most popular mobile app for cab booking on the Android store currently. Customers can book from over 33,000 cabs on the Ola app, now available in 19 cities: Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Pune, Goa, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Indore, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Surat, Vishakhapatnam and soon in Nashik, Nagpur and Coimbatore.
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